Fancy a brew? Hmm. No. Not right now – closing down my Mark and Lard site

Published on 21 February 2011 in , , , , ,

Last year I started a process of archiving some older and unloved parts of my website.

The end of Fancy A Brew

At the time I was particularly torn about shutting down one particular section. I didn’t at the time. However I’ve recently changed my mind. It really was time to say goodbye to Fancy A Brew.

My website on the story of one Mark Radcliffe and another Marc Riley is one of the oldest sections of my website. It dates back to a time when the first thing you did when setting up a website, was start creating your own personal homage to what you liked. It didn’t matter if the internet already had 200 Baywatch sites, there was always room for yours!

I never did a Baywatch site (never watched Baywatch at all for that matter) but I did do a Mark and Lard site in homage to two of the finest presenters Radio 1 ever had. I pretty much became an addict from the first edition of the Graveyard Shift they did in 1993. If I was in between 10 and midnight, Monday to Thursday (which I usually was), the show was on the radio. It was “must tune in” listening.

So when I turned up at uni and started a website about them. And it’s been there ever since.

And now it’s closing. Sadly I just don’t have the time or the willpower to keep it up to date any more. It’s been a problem ever since Mark Radcliffe moved to the current 8pm slot and joined up with Stuart Maconie – I’ve barely listened to that show. How could I keep a site on it up to date? (In contrast, Marc Riley is barely off my wireless!) Radcliffe and Maconie moving to 6music may help, however with me leaving the BBC this year, will I be able to listen to any daytime radio? I just don’t know.

So I’ve decided to put it to an end. Better to shut down a site than do a half baked job.

It was a difficult decision – especially given how long I’ve been updating it – but as with all of my closed down sites, it will have some element of an afterlife. It will remain online for the foreseeable future, just with a banner explaining that it’s no longer updated.